Japanese space probe fails to enter Venus’ orbit

Whoops. Japan's space probe Akatsuki has messed up its chance to enter Venus' orbit, missing the
atmospherically dense planet during a communications failure before
being pulled into the Sun's gravitational tug.

The probe was designed to study the planet's atmosphere and
climate, provide data on its thick cloud cover, monitor volcano
activity and provide conclusive proof that the planet has
lightning. The 25 billion yen (£190 million) craft sported infrared
cameras and other instruments for its two-year research plan.

But the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency lost contact with the
probe at a critical point in the mission, as the craft shut itself
down. By the time contact was re-established, the probe had shot
past the planet and was unable to enter Venus' orbit.

By missing its tiny window of opportunity, Japan won't get another chance to try again until the craft
passes back past Venus in six years. With the country's stringent space budget
making such expeditions a rarity, the failure of such a huge,
interplanetary mission has been a massive letdown for Japan.

Especially after its last failure. Back in 2003, the same space
agency had to scrap plans to orbit Mars after the craft, five years
into its journey, was off target and missed the red planet. This
Venus mission was meant as somewhat of a redemption for the nation,
as Japan has still never succeeded in an interplanetary
mission.

The country has never attempted manned flight either, mostly because its budget is so tiny. For
2009, JAXA was given 180 billion yen (£1.4 billion) for space
programs; almost nine times less than NASA's $17.6 billion for the same year. It's also thought that
public interest in space is low in Japan, so the Akatsuki craft
held the names of 200,000 Japanese space enthusiasts to show public
support.

But Japan's space successes should be championed. Earlier this
year it launched the world's first solar-sail powered craft with the IKAROS. And also in 2010, the country's Hayabusa probe safely returned to Earth after collecting dust grains from an
asteroid's surface.

JAXA professor emeritus Kuninori Uesugi says the country can learn from this screw up, and should
analyse the probe to figure out what went wrong, and how to avoid
such a failure again.